Cookie Dough
by adestiny
Summary: Danny's depressed. Can a bowl of cookie dough and a new friendship change that? DPxDF sorry if that offends you.
1. Introduction

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Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of the characters/ theme song that may be in the story.

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Pairings: Several one-sided pairings. Mostly one-sided Phantom x Danny, some Sam x Danny, definite traces of one-sided Danny x Paulina and Paulina x Phantom, and maybe a bit of one-sided Dash x Danny later on. No Tucker pairings at the moment, but he might get with Satellite- I mean, Star.

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Summary: Danny's getting into trouble and is depressed because his parents are divorcing and he's tired from fighting ghosts. Can a bowl of cookie dough and a new friendship help him snap out of it?

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Box Ghost: I AM THE BOX GHOST! NO FLAMES! THEY WILL BE USED AS AMMUNITION AGAINST THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE! BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST!

And now for the first chapter of Cookie Dough.

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Chapter One: An Old Article

Danny yawned, rubbing his eyes and shielding them from the bright sun until they could adjust. He rolled out of bed, landing with a loud 'thump!' on the floor. Sleepily, he walked to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

Danny was, in all aspects, an eyesore. Large bags had formed under his eyes. His blue eyes themselves were bloodshot and his skin was pale. His usually neatly-kept, jet-black hair was tangled and even matted in places. Blood was caked to his arms, legs, and chest, and had even found its way to his fingernails, which was strange because his hands were gloved when he fought ghosts.

_That's the whole problem, _Danny thought, _If I didn't have to fight ghosts all the time I'd have more time to sleep and study. Then I wouldn't be falling behind in school._

True though it was that Danny had never had Jazz's brains, he at least scraped by with C's and B's. But he hadn't even tripped in the past few weeks- he'd fallen flat on his face, figuratively speaking. Most of his assignments didn't get turned in and those that did got a D-minus at best. Mr. Lancer was anything but kind in this situation. If anything, he made it worse. And if this weren't all bad enough, he was depressed and lovesick. Those few days when he did make it to school he didn't care to try and catch up. Life had become more meaningless to him than it was to Sam and her gothic friends at the Skulk and Lurk Cafe.

And yet, he continued to fight ghosts. It seemed his only outlet for his many troubles. If he had a bad day, he could take it out on some wimp like the Box Ghost. If he was just in a bad mood, then he would take on more challenging foes like Skulker or even Plasmius if he was in the mood to travel, though he often didn't reach Plasmius's mansion before he had to return home to be in bed in time to wake up for school.

And his family and friends in all of this? They _noticed_ him, at least. They tried to get him to talk about it, and Jazz even revealed to him that she knew about his being a halfa, but he shunned them and would spend entire weekends in his room, save for those times when he had to fight ghosts or put one back into the Ghost Zone. And lately, he'd neglected to even do the latter. If he put them back, he wouldn't be able to take out his daily troubles on them.

Danny didn't exactly _want _to be alone. On the contrary; he longed for companionship and family. But between Jazz's badgering, Maddie's motherly instincts, and Jack's many attempts to exorcise him with shouts of "Ghost!", and his parents constantly fighting, he didn't feel it wise to stay around them. And Sam and Tucker were no better than Jazz.

But there was more to the cause of his problem than having to battle ghosts nightly. His parents were divorcing. Their reason? Maddie was tired of putting up with Jack's blunders every day and being poor because they worked as ghost hunters. So she cheated on him with Vlad, who proposed to her. They couldn't get married if Maddie was still Jack's wife, so they were divorcing.

I suppose that now would be the time to say, 'Ha, gotcha! I was just fooling around!' But that is not the case. Vlad was going to be Danny's stepfather in eight to ten months.

Had Danny had better encounters with Vlad, this might not be so bad. Being rich like Sam could be nice. Living in a huge castle-mansion clearly had its perks. And another halfa to teach him new ghost powers could be quite useful. Jazz would be staying with their father and he would be rid of her constant know-it-all nagging. But moving to Wisconsin and away from his friends and father was a definite downside.

Danny slammed the mirror with his scarred fist and cracked it accidentally.

"Great!" he couldn't help but shouting, "Just perfect! But the joke's on you, Mr. Mirror, because my luck _can't get any worse_!"

Jazz, who had been standing in the hallway outside, heard his outburst. She bit her lower lip- she knew that she would have to tell her parents Danny's secret, if only in hopes that their love for their son would make them stay together. But she was fearful of this, knowing that a thousand questions would fly from their mouths, one of which being how she found out, and another would be how long she knew. She couldn't answer them all.

And what if they tried to hurt Danny or take out his ghost half? Could he survive being torn from his spectral self after being merged with it for so long?

Her younger brother stormed through the bathroom door, and she simply gazed in awe and intimidation at him.

"What are _you_ staring at?" he snapped.

"Nothing," she said softly, "Danny, you can tell me-"

"I don't _want _to tell you and you can't make me!" he yelled at her, "I'd be _fine _if everyone just left me _alone_!"

"I know you don't feel that way."

"_How_? Answer that, Ms. Smarty Pants! I might not be as smart as you, but I'm pretty sure that I know how I feel better than you!" And with that, he stomped downstairs and slammed a bowl onto the table, nearly breaking it, before dumping cereal into it and sloppily poured milk everywhere. He shoved the spoon into the damp mix and pushed it into his mouth, grinding his teeth angrily with every bite.

As his trademark blue smoke poured from his mouth, he transformed into his ghost form without even stopping to say, "Going ghost!" He turned to see the Box Ghost and rolled his eyes.

"Haven't I humiliated you enough times already?"

"I am the Box Ghost! Beware, ghost boy!"

"I **KNOW** WHO YOU ARE ALREADY, YOU **GIANT IDIOT**! IF YOU WOULD **STOP TRYING TO GET YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME **YOU MIGHT REALIZE THAT **I'M IN A BAD MOOD **AND I **DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH YOU AND I'M EATING RIGHT NOW**!"

"Uh… beware?"

Danny sent out an angry green blast from his fists at the Box Ghost, and the slamming that was caused by it made a lot of noise. The other three Fentons were downstairs in seconds, but Danny didn't care if they saw him or not. In fact, he was planning on telling them right then and there.

His body seemed to have different ideas. He turned invisible as soon as he heard their footsteps and sunk down to the basement. The Box Ghost, however, met an angry Maddie Fenton (soon to be Maddie Masters) and Jack Fenton. Because both of them were stressed, Maddie's skills were greatly increased and Jack was too tired to mess anything up. The Box Ghost was gone in seconds.

Meanwhile, Danny was trying to turn human in the basement, but his body seemed intent on staying ghost.

"Why can't I change back?" he demanded.

_(It's too dangerous) _a voice said in the back of his head.

"No it isn't."

_(Yes it is)_

"No it isn't."

_(Yes it is)_

"Shut up! I don't need a voice in the back of my head now, too!"

_(Okay…) _the voice said sadly. Danny was finally able to turn back, but he fell on his butt and broke the chair that he'd been hovering over. He let out another angry shout and the other three rushed downstairs. Jack had the Box Ghost caught in his Ghosting Rod, but decided to put him on hold until they knew what was wrong with Danny.

"Danny, we heard a shout. Are you okay?" Maddie asked.

"Fine, Mom, just _fine_! In fact, I'm _perfect_! I couldn't feel better if I tried!" he said sarcastically, "You know, what kind of parents are you, anyway? You're supposed to be the world's leading ghost hunters and you couldn't even figure out that-"

"Danny!" Jazz interrupted, "Are you sure you want to te-"

"I'm half ghost!" Danny said over Jazz. Maddie and Jack gasped, dropping the ghost-hunting weapons that they'd used to catch the Box Ghost, and the Box Ghost himself, freeing him.

"Beware!" he shouted lamely before disappearing.

Danny's parents didn't even notice that the Box Ghost was gone. He saw the disbelieving expressions on their faces and said, "That's right. 'Danny Fenton' is the number one ghost enemy, 'Danny Phantom'. Didn't you guys _ever _notice that we looked the exact same aside from coloration and that our voices were the same? Didn't you think, even for a second, that my injuries and his being in the same places at the same times was suspicious? And what about the fact that I was never around when he was? A child could have figured it out, but you two were too dumb and caught up in trying to catch me to even notice!"

"Danny, if you wanted our attention, you should have come and talked to us instead of making up such a story," Jack said, "Though everything you mentioned is odd, I've never heard of anyone who was half ghost and half human. And everyone knows that humans can't have ghost powers."

"If you won't believe me when I tell you, then I'll show you!" Danny said. "Going ghost!"

He tried to transform, but he couldn't. Jack, Maddie, and Jazz just watched as he tried time and time again to transform.

"Honey, maybe you should see a psychologist," Maddie suggested.

"No way!" Danny said, "I was ghost just a minute ago and I couldn't turn human, and now that I'm human I can't go ghost."

_(Can I come back now?)_

"What do you guys mean 'can you come back now'?" Danny asked the three.

"We didn't say anything, Danny," Jazz said, "But if this is all an act, please stop. You're starting to scare us."

"I'm not acting! I _just _heard someone ask to come back, I swear!" Danny said, "Didn't you?"

"No," Jack said, "Danny, is this about something at school? You aren't on drugs, are you?"

"No!" Danny shouted, "How could you even _think _that?" Reflecting on the past few minutes, he could clearly see why his father might say that, but he wouldn't admit it.

"Come on, Danny, let's go see the nice doctor…" Maddie said. She reached out to grab his wrist/hand, but with a defiant cry from Danny her hand went right through… each and every of the several times she tried to grab him.

"Do you believe me now?" Danny asked.

"Well, that ghost is going to have to come out," Jack said, "No ghost is going to take over _my _son!"

And suddenly, Danny turned ghost and flew away from them, high in the air, almost to the corner of the room. His elbows were fazing through the walls. "Stay away!" he shouted without meaning to, "Just go away and leave me alone!"

And then he was gone. He wasn't really gone, just invisible, but Jazz, Jack, and Maddie didn't know that. He waited for them to leave before becoming human again and sitting on the unbroken chair. Blue smoke poured from his mouth and several new ghosts emerged from the Ghost Zone, but he didn't care. He just sat, head in hands, until Maddie and Jack came to close it. Jack went to exorcise him again, but Maddie stopped him and went back upstairs.

Meanwhile, Jazz was looking over the cracked mirror. She ran her finger along the cracks, careful not to cut herself, when she felt a papery substance beneath a part of the mirror that was ready to fall off. She cautiously removed the piece and found an old, browning piece of paper, she pulled it out slowly and delicately, knowing that it could rip easily. She blew the dust off of it and looked at the paper.

"_'In loving memory of our son',_" she read, "_'May he live on in peace, forever in his home_._'_" Beneath the somewhat sloppy writing was a newspaper clipping. She read on:

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"_'_Mystery Murder in Amity Park

_Today, a young boy by the name of Daniel Phantom was killed. His parents, living in the house at the corner of Ghost and Bone Street (1), were devastated and later committed a double suicide. The cause of the young teenager's death remains unknown because his body seems to be untouched, showing no signs of struggle, drowning, internal bleeding, or any kind of damage, and according to his doctor he was as healthy as a person can be. Stranger still is the fact that he died on his fourteenth birthday, October 31, more commonly known as Halloween. No one, from policemen to FBI to CIA can figure out what caused his untimely death_._'_

"October 31..." she mused, "That's the day that Mom and Dad built the Ghost Portal, Danny's birthday (2) and probably the day that Danny got his powers (3)!" She looked at the picture of Danny Phantom that was taken before his death and gasped. He looked just like Danny, except he had darker skin, green eyes, and platinum hair.

"Mom! Dad! Danny! Get in here, now!" Jazz yelled at the top of her lungs. Jack and Maddie Fenton were in the room in seconds, but Danny ignored her. "Look at this! It's Danny!"

"Daniel Phantom?" Maddie mused, reading over the article, "He looks just like Danny's ghost form. This is getting too interesting for my taste."

"He used to live here," Jack said, noticing the address 1 (again), "Do you think…?"

"Yes. Danny must have gotten his powers when the Fenton Portal activated. But maybe he didn't get ghost powers- maybe he got the ghost that had them and didn't notice. They look so much alike, so he probably thought that his ghost form just had a few color adjustments," Jazz said.

"We should tell him right away," Jack said.

"No," Maddie said, "Let's let him figure this out for himself. He'll only think that we're meddling, or that we fixed the whole thing. Jazz, go in his room and put this somewhere that he's sure to find it. When he reads it, he'll put the pieces together by himself."

"Right." Jazz went upstairs and put the paper on his bed, tucked under his pillow slightly. He was bound to notice when he went to bed, else wise when he got up in the morning and it fell to the floor.

She did not go back to Maddie and Jack; they were fighting again and their booming voices filled the two-story house and extended a bit beyond that. She went down to see Danny instead, hoping that maybe he'd calmed down. But then, deciding against it halfway down the stairs to the first story, she thought it may be better to call Tucker or Sam instead.

Jazz dialed Sam's number nervously. What was she going to say?

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sam. We need to talk. It's about Danny."

"What isn't these days?"

"He really broke down today. He even told Mom and Dad about you-know-what and went to pieces when they didn't believe him. He even tried going ghost and he couldn't, and then he said that he heard a voice. We found an old newspaper clipping in the mirror that told about 'Daniel Phantom', who died on Halloween a few years ago and he looks just like Danny's ghost form. Halloween is almost here and I need you to stick on Danny like stink on a pile of dung, got it? Just take him out trick-or-treating or something."

"Okay, but I don't think that he'll go."

"Persuade him. You're good at it. Plus, you're his best friend… you could say that it's something for his birthday, you know, he's turning fourteen this year (4) and that's how old Daniel Phantom was when he died… on his birthday. His killer, who or whatever it was, might go after Danny."

"Alright, Jazz. Should I bring Tucker, too?" Sam asked.

"Yes. That way, if one of you is occupied somehow, the other can look after him and make sure that he doesn't get in any trouble."

"Okay."

"Thanks, Sam. I owe you one." And then she hung up.

She gathered up enough courage to go talk to Danny after the phone call. She tuned out her parents and focused on getting downstairs to the basement.

Finally, Jazz opened the heavy door to the lab. She stood there, watching Danny. He was crying into his arms. She knew that he was tired and that their parents' divorce was hitting him very hard.

Jazz ducked behind the door when a barely visible shade began to form behind him. She watched as it became more and more defined and less and less see-through. Soon she could see the form of Daniel Phantom behind Danny Fenton, his legs simple black wisps.

Jazz yelped when Daniel reached for her brother, causing him to disappear.

"What do you want now?" Danny demanded through sobs.

"Nothing," Jazz said swiftly before leaving. She didn't like Daniel being that close to Danny, and coming and going as he pleased. What if he wasn't around when Danny needed to go ghost? Or was Daniel called to Danny when he needed him?

_Too many questions and not enough answers, _Jazz said, _I'd better do some more research on Daniel Phantom and the murder. I might find something useful._

She ran up to her room, which was full of pink, girly things. She found her laptop, which had a fuzzy pink cover over it (making it impossible to see unless you knew where it was) and turned it on. She logged on to the internet (under the username NormalgurlfrmCrazyfamily) and searched the internet for a while, trying to find something on Daniel Phantom, but all she could get was the same newspaper clipping.

"Beep!" went the laptop as a message popped up. Jazz went to close it when she saw that it was an e-mail. She opened it quickly. The sender name was blacked out, and all the message said was, 

(1) I made up the address.

(2) I don't know when Danny got his powers, so let's just say it was Halloween for this story.

(3) I don't know when Danny's birthday is, so let's go with Halloween to make it more mysterious!

(4) There's a slight AU to this story. Everything from the series, the powers, the ghosts and all, still occurred, but Danny was just a year younger when it happened for this story, 'kay?

REVIEW PLEASE! IT IS MUCH APPRECIATED! I HAVE COOKIE DOUGH FOR REVIEWERS!


	2. Halloween

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of the characters/ theme song that may be in the story.

**Pairings**: Several one-sided pairings. Mostly one-sided Phantom x Danny, some Sam x Danny, definite traces of one-sided Danny x Paulina and Paulina x Phantom, and maybe a bit of one-sided Dash x Danny later on. No Tucker pairings at the moment.

**Summary**: Danny's getting into trouble and is depressed because his parents are divorcing and he's tired from fighting ghosts. Can a bowl of cookie dough and a new friendship help him snap out of it?

**To the Reviewers: **Cookie dough for all!

**Box Ghost: I AM THE BOX GHOST! NO FLAMES! THEY WILL BE USED AS AMMUNITION AGAINST THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE! BEWARE!**

And now for the latest installment of Cookie Dough.

_Halloween_

Jazz typed in the address faster than wind in a hurricane and pressed the enter key. It took a minute for the page to load, but she soon found that it was worth the wait.

Names lined the page, and next to them were the headlines from the articles that they'd been reported in. There were rows and rows of lists of names, and more than one page. She scrolled until she found 'Daniel Phantom' and clicked on the name. She read silently:

'Daniel Phantom's case is one of the most remarkable that we've ever seen. Usually ghosts leave a kind of residue, such as slime, ectoplasm, etc., but there was nothing left around him. Also, there were no wounds, and he appeared to be at a state of absolute calm when it happened. It was also his birthday and favorite holiday of the year, Halloween, and he had no apparent reason to commit suicide. Even if he had, there were no strangle signs, cuts, bruises, or anything suggesting that he was drowned, suffocated, or shot.

In fact, it appears as though his soul left his body of its own accord, or someone used a spell to remove it.'

_A soul-taking spell? _Jazz wondered, _I don't think we've met a ghost that could use magic, or take souls… unless it overshadowed him and took his soul with it when it left._ _But who would want to do that?_

She clicked off of the Internet, not finding anything else about Daniel on Google or Yahooligans. She even asked around on AIM, but no one knew anything. She closed the laptop and sighed.

(_Jazz... Jazz... Jazz!)_

"Aah!" Jazz let out a short scream as she turned and saw Daniel hovering _maybe_ two feet from her. She fell off of her chair and landed on her butt on the pink-carpeted floor.

(_You okay?)_

"Yeah," Jazz said, "So what do you want with me?"

_(It's Danny. We have to do something about him.)_

"Duh. But what do we do?"

_(Just get him out of the house. It's already sunset, and Halloween. Sam and Tucker and taking him trick-or-treating, right?)_

"Halloween already?" Jazz exclaimed. And so it was Halloween- she had done research through the night, Danny had fallen asleep crying in the basement, and their parents had fought through the night and were still going. "No wonder why I'm starving... and tired."

_(I'll be going with them to make sure he stays safe.)_

"Yeah... how does that work, anyway?"

_(Whenever he says 'going ghost' I teleport to him and let him overshadow me for a while. Then I go away.)_

"Humans can overshadow ghosts?"

_(If the ghost lets them.)_

Jazz would have inquired further, but the doorbell rang and she rushed downstairs to let Sam and Tucker in.

"Hi Jazz!" Tucker said, "Hi Danny!"

"Danny!" Sam gasped, "You look better."

"That isn't Danny," Jazz said, "I'll explain later; it's too complicated for right now."

"Right," Tucker said. "So where's Danny?"

"Asleep in the basement... or crying in the basement," Jazz sighed.

"Yikes," Sam replied.

"I know," Jazz responded, "I hope we aren't too late to help him. Daniel will be going too, from above. He'll be watching all three of you to make sure that you all stay safe."

"Uh..."

"The Ghost Boy is Daniel, the human is Danny," Jazz explained quickly, "Geez, it isn't that hard to figure out."

"I'm a C student. It's _very _hard to figure out," Tucker replied.

There were heavy footsteps coming up from the basement that all four of them could hear.

"Looks like it's time to go to work," Sam said, "Or really, sounds like it."

Daniel went invisible and added, (_He'll be in a foul mood, so watch what you say. One wrong word that he wouldn't usually mind could really set him off.)_

Danny walked toward Jazz, about to say, "Who are you talking to?" or "Who's there?" when he saw Sam and Tucker and instead said, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Hi Danny!" Tucker said, "Happy birth-"

"Don't even come at me with the 'it's-your-birthday-cheer-up' stuff!" Danny shot before Tucker could finish, "I'm way past cheering up."

"Good," Sam said, "We're going trick-or-treating. We being Tucker, me, _and _you. Darker moods make better costumes. Tucker will go help you find something."

"I will?" Tucker asked.

Sam stepped harshly on his foot, "Yes, you will."

The two boys went up to Danny's room without another word. "Boy, Daniel was really right," Jazz said, once the two were out of earshot, of course, "He's really stressed."

Tucker and Danny didn't have much trouble deciding what he'd be. He was going as a gothic person. His hair was messy and dark enough as was, so they left it alone. His face was also pale and didn't need make-up, except for some poorly, too thickly drawn on eyeliner.

The two scrounged around in Danny's closet and found a tight-fitting, long-sleeved black shirt that stopped at his wrists. They also found two rock bands and put them on. Two rings were found, also- a snake eating its own tail, and a skull. With the addition of one finger-less glove and dark pants, his costume was complete.

"Ready?" Sam asked when the boys came back downstairs.

"Duh," Danny replied. The three walked through the door with empty plastic bags while Daniel floated through the ceiling.

He kept a decent distance- about twenty feet- so Danny's ghost sense wouldn't go off. From there he could see them, and anyone around them. And if a ghost tried to attack from any angle, Daniel would be able to see it before it got too close to Danny to stop.

On the ground, Danny's ghost sense was going off like crazy. There were many ghosts around, harmless, of course, trick-or-treating in somewhat human disguises. It was Halloween, after all- the one day that they could openly walk through the streets and not have people point, scream, shoot at them, and run away from them.

He even recognized a few, like Gwendolyn, the girl with the amulet that transformed people into dragons. Of course, she didn't have the amulet; Daniel had taken it and stored it in Danny's room so no one would ever be able to use it again. And Skulker was there, too, and though he and Danny exchanged death-glares nothing happened. Ember walked by once, too, dressed as a cheerleader. Her pom-poms were made of fire, like her hair, and it looked quite strange. Wulf even prowled by and gave Danny's face a hearty lick.

Soon, the trio's bags were filled to bursting with candy, and there had been no hostile act against Danny.

But then, suddenly, a ghost reached out and grabbed him from behind, flying quickly into the air with him, using one arm to hold him and the other to cover his mouth.

"Danny!" Sam and Tucker cried at once.

Oh-oh! Will Daniel save Danny, or will the ghost succeed in taking or hurting him? Well, sorry about the short chapter, but I wasn't expecting reviews that quickly! And to the reviewers, because I can't name you all, take your fair share of cookie dough, made fresh by Tucker, Daniel, and Danny! Hey, would _you _let Sam near cookie dough, with her ultra-recyclo-vegetarian/healthy diet? I didn't think so.

Also, since it's almost Thanksgiving as I'm writing this, I am adding in ghost pie! By ghost pie I mean it was made by Daniel and Danny. Happy Thanksgiving!


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